Saint James Infirmary 367: Opportunity Knocks.

[Daphne]

[GodWilling]

Slap and tickle in Dani's room. I'd like to imagine neither of those hands are Erin's.

[laguna85]

so Who hands is Who?
both her hands
but have fun in Danielle room

[Haight]

I *really* like where this is going...

Hopefully Erin and Dani can 'convince' Miriam to be *really* ok with what her mom and Adrian are doing.

[jmundt29]

This does look good.  However, once again I have to ask, "Who flipped the Expand Harem switch?"  There was pretty much a cap on it until Dani got attacked, and then everyone went into hyper-vigilant mode with the guns and the protective spells and the plans and whatnot.  And now, since Dani took a gander at what's below the clocktower, she's revving back up.  Ein could be arguable as a chess move, and I'm definitely curious what Erin and Dani were having her do, but Pearl? I don't get it.  I like it, I just don't get it.

Well, technically Dani could just have Erin toss her the coat from wherever it got flung when Her Unpronounceableness landed on the bed, but that's not the kind of ship Dani runs.

[GodWilling]

It's no more than a few hours since Erin and Dani took part in a ritual to help Miriam recover her memories from her experiences with Pink Clouds and the pendant. That was about helping Miriam, whose life has been seriously scarred by her experiences. And she took a lot of persuading that she could trust Erin, of whom she was very wary.

On the face of it we now have Erin laughing in anticipation of Dani using that very same pendant on Miriam. That's quite a betrayal, isn't it? I can't imagine the author has placed specifically Erin and Dani in that room purely on a whim.

Erin understands trust issues, I think. I find it hard to conceive of an intended use of the pendant here that she would approve of. Unless she really believes Miriam needed help only because it was Jakob who had abused her.

I should say, I like where this is going too. As I said before, I was hoping Dani would use the pendant on Erin and that it would work. But unless this is another joke at our expense, I kind of have two motives now for hoping that Erin is laughing here because Dani has done something to her.

[Haight]

It's possible that Erin is laughing at something else in the room, like what Dani's been doing (she is generally very silly), or what's been happening to Ein. Or she may not realize it's Miriam on the other side.

Also, in the face of it, we're working in a fantasy world where making someone a mind-controlled sex slave is not necessarily something that crosses the moral event horizon. So the rules are a bit different.

[jmundt29]

I'm guessing Erin's laughter is about Ein or Dani's ridiculous idea of subterfuge.  Here, I think it's not necessarily about springing the crystal on Pearl to indoctrinate her, but hiding it from her so Adrian doesn't get a warning that someone set the Harem to "Expand."

[GodWilling]

Like I say, I'm not taking a moral stance here: I hope Dani has used the pendant on Erin and I hope she'll use it on Miriam. The morals in this story are skewed for precisely the same reason I'm here reading it. But within that framework, betrayal of Miriam's trust seems to me a significant issue. And if this is going to happen then, as I say, it seems significant that it's Dani and Erin who are involved.

We still have the question of whether the pendant worked at all on Caitlyn and, if not, why not? It wasn't sufficient for Jakob's needs. Can it actually be used to expand the harem as effectively as the watch?

Is that actually what this is about? No one was recruited to the harem after the Night of the Watch. It wasn't like Dani didn't still have the watch for most of that time. Adrian's veto on the recruitment of Raven looked to me like a "no thanks" to any future recruitment. So why now?

I can buy that Dani might be doing something with Einfríður and that Erin might approve. It's harder to see that with Miriam.

[jmundt29]

GW--Why exactly are we arguing when I'm agreeing with you?

I read the nix on Raven as the same thing you did (although Erin found a very HOT way of getting around that; we still haven't seen those results yet).  There are two ways to easily read this.  Either, Pearl is interrupting Erin and Dani in their experiment/defensive action with Her Unpronounceableness, and Erin is laughing at Dani's pathetic attempt at subterfuge...or, Dani has just decided to spring the crystal on Pearl and Erin is laughing (either at the situation or the subterfuge).  The title leans toward option 2, but what we've seen from Dani and Erin so far would argue just as strongly for option 1 in a vacuum.  Also, note that entry into the harem has been...therapeutic, for lack of a better word, for all current members.  Might Erin and Dani truly think this would be a good next step in the healing process?  Or has the definitive reemergence of Jakob signaled that all bets are off as they try to protect themselves?

[Haight]

Alternatively, Dani could just be hiding it because she was holding it when she went to answer the door. Erin may be laughing at Dani answering the door wearing only a thong and what that would do to Miriam's (comparatively) prudish sensibilities.

[GodWilling]

GW--Why exactly are we arguing when I'm agreeing with you?

I'd say we're not really arguing and you're not really agreeing with me.

I seem to be seeing something different in what we've seen over the last few pages to what others are seeing. Which is not to say I'm right and they're wrong.

From a story-telling point of view there's a reason why Erin went upstairs before Miriam. I don't know what that reason is, but the last panel here actually appears to give more away about the nature of what's happening than it would have done if she hadn't. Erin is laughing. Everything is OK. If Erin weren't there laughing we might think things weren't OK. If Erin were standing there looking as zoned-out as Einfríður we'd know something was up.

Since when did we start getting told things are OK when we didn't need to? Since when did we start getting told anything when we didn't need to?

Maybe Dani and Erin do think this is what Miriam needs. So why Einfríður? If it's about defence then why Miriam? And why is Erin laughing? (And who's the spooky looking woman(?) in the photo in the mirror frame?) No one had underwear on in the previous panel in this sequence. Is that Dani at the door, or Einfríður?

I find this panel intriguing. I'm trying to make sense of it. It's speculative ideas rather than arguments. But I'm not absolutely convinced that everything is OK.

[Daphne]

Since when did we start getting told anything when we didn't need to?

Shit, I've been telling you things at all? Time to work on my writing!

[GodWilling]

Shit, I've been telling you things at all? Time to work on my writing!

You have, but I don't believe a word of it. Which I suspect is where I'm falling into your trap.

[Tony]

Since when did we start getting told anything when we didn't need to?

Shit, I've been telling you things at all? Time to work on my writing!

I've been totally confused about what's happening in this one for a while. I figure it will take another year or so for enough of the story to be here for me to start understanding anything!